The front page award for Best Blog goes to Lee Rosenbaum of CultureGrrl for her story, “Stealth Deaccessions by the National Academy” [here, here and here]. The judges noted that although it can be difficult to find both useful information and good writing in a blog, Lee has managed to do this with flair. Her original reporting had a great impact by breaking a big story about the National Academy Museum that was later picked up by other media outlets. Her work is an example of how traditional journalistic standards can be applied to the new media format.

I know that this award is composed of very high-quality glass, because, klutz that I am, I managed to drop it on the hard floor, right in front of my buddy Kelly Crow and her Wall Street Journal editor, Christopher Farley, whom I was meeting for the first time. (Great First Impression) Kelly was there to claim her award for cultural reporting in a newspaper, which she won for this article. You go, Crow!

Here are we two merry celebrants:

Left to right: Your intrepid “Best Blogger” with Best Newspaper Culture Reporter, Kelly Crow of the Wall Street Journal

The etching on the award depicts a woman on a winged steed, hunched over a manual typewriter that’s precariously perched on the lunging horse’s neck. Is that how they met their deadlines back in the days when Eleanor Roosevelt belonged to this venerable club?

I think I’ll display my new trophy on one of the shelves in my office where the apartment’s previous occupant, the late salsa diva Celia Cruz, had once arrayed her numerous Grammys.

But now, artlings, I have to reveal something truly embarrassing: Not only did I pay an application fee for the award, but I also had to pay to attend my own award ceremony. These fees probably didn’t impact any of the other winners, because they were all members of major news organizations (which presumably picked up the tab). A lot of the editors were in attendance.

Would anyone like to click my Donate button today to help defray my winged victory? (Speaking of which, many thanks to CultureGrrl Donor 47 from Manhattan, the first to join my Premier Donors club!)

CultureGrrl

I’m a veteran cultural journalist and lecturer with many pieces in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and major art magazines. I've been a cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC and WQXR) and provided arts commentary on NPR [Read More …]